Session 24: 20 knots on Labor day holiday

A good consistent Southerly during the afternoon on Labor day holiday was a great opportunity for another outing. I was on the water at about 2 and the conditions were good. Lot of speed and not too much swell. On the water, I was pondering on how surreal kitesurfing is. Just, you, the board, the wind and the water. So much power, so much speed and so much fun.

By contrast, the politicians on the news this morning are talking about building another coal-fired power station in Victoria. If you can crank out 30km/h on a kiteboard, surely we can generate our power from a mix of wind and solar?

The turning is progressing well - I am concentrating in keeping power in the kite and getting a slight downwind run to gather speed.

I met Rick, another kitesurfer on the beach who has been reading this blog. It was nice to hear someone is getting some benefits from it.

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GPS readings

• Max speed:28.1 km/h
• Trip odometer: 8.05km
• Average: 8.7 km/h
• Time: 0:55

This is a track log from the GPS, but the map calibration is not quite right yet. As you can see I did one longish run to peek down towards Brighton, and the rest of the time doing short runs to practise turns.


Yesterday the wind was blowing at 30+ knots. We made a family trip to Elwood and walked to St Kilda, where we watched a couple of kiteboarders jumping close to the pier. Spectacular air, 4m+, but no impact vests or helmets. I took some photos and will put them up in a separate posting.